Elderly Bandit Sentenced in Kansas City

Published 12:54 pm, Monday, April 25, 2016

A 75-year-old man was sentenced to more than five years in prison for robbing a bank and using the money to buy a recreational vehicle to take his girlfriend to Mount Rushmore.

George L. Curtis pleaded guilty in September to the July 12 robbery at Winterset State Bank in Harrisonville, U.S. Attorney Todd Graves said. He used a replica handgun in the heist, Graves said.

Besides the five year and three month prison sentence, Curtis also was ordered Friday to pay full restitution to the bank and Trailside RV Center.

According to court documents, Curtis had a bank employee make out a $200,000 cashier's check, then drove to the RV dealership and tried to use the check to buy a 40-foot recreational vehicle he'd picked out earlier in the week.

When the dealership wanted a check for the exact purchase price, Curtis and a dealership employee went to Curtis' own bank and had a cashier's check made out for $166,165, prosecutors said.

Curtis was arrested in Sioux Falls, S.D., on July 14 while on the vacation. Prosecutors said he bought the RV so he could take his girlfriend and three of her relatives on a trip to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.